Module 7 Assessment
1. Get Oriented
"Excellent instruction is less about what a teacher does and more about what students can do and know as a result of the lesson."
-Tony Wagner, Creating Innovators
Effective formative and summative assessments at a distance are possible. Your students can provide evidence for learning no matter where their classroom is. And like most helpful practices in distance learning, assessment begins with intentional planning. Module 7 examines how we may design assessments that encourage all students to demonstrate growth and plan for future learning. We will consider:
How can students demonstrate their learning when we are not all in the same room together?
What are options for formative and summative assessments?
What might project based learning and place based learning look like at home?
Each module in this series encourages you to customize your experience to what you personally need. Pick and choose what best applies to you, your context, your comfort level, and your learners. Along the way, leverage Slack for questions, connections, and further resource sharing.
Ideally, please explore Module 7 prior to your cohort’s Zoom meeting. Your Zoom opportunities in Modules 5 through 8 are office hours where your facilitator will go deeper into module topics, structure opportunities to connect with others on the work you’re doing, and provide time for Q & A. Previewing the modules prior to those Zooms will help you maximize your time.
2. Read & View
“What are you going to assess? What's evidence of the goals that you have in mind?"
-Grant Wiggins
We have considered how to integrate effective feedback cycles into our distance learning plans to support students during a learning process. But how do we design and deliver summative assessments to gather evidence for student achievement? Well designed assessments provide information for personalizing and designing learning and teaching going forward. We need summative assessments that work. This module explores...
How do we summatively assess students?
What are the possibilities for demonstrations of learning?
What does project based learning look like in a distance learning world?
How can assessment promote future learning?
Throughout a learning process, we gather formative feedback. Module 6 explored some possibilities in designing for effective feedback. "If summative assessment can be described as a digital snapshot, formative assessment is like streaming video. One is a picture of what a student knows that is captured in a single moment of time, and the other is a moving picture that demonstrates active student thinking and reasoning." (John Van de Walle, Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics) We need both forms of assessment. As we consider those formative and summative tasks, we want to plan for assessments that are...
Aligned to clear standards, provided to students in advance
Authentic to the learning and task
Accessible to all students and ideally provide options for leveraging strengths and personalizing demonstrations of learning
Used to inform future learning and teaching design
The resources below reinforce best practices in assessment with considerations to assessment in a distance learning environment.
The resources listed here invite choice. Read and view what seems most applicable to your learning and your practice. Just click on the buttons to visit the article sites and view the short videos
READ IT
Seven Practices for Effective Learning, Jay McTighe and Ken O'Connor
Summative Assessment in Distance Learning, Andrew Miller
Formative Assessment in Distance Learning, Andrew Miller
VIEW IT
Assessing the Process of Learning Not the Product of What Was Learned
Rethinking Summative assessments in Emergency Distance Learning
Create Lessons that Allow You to Assess Learning in the Process, Not the Product
Using The World to Build Authentic Assessments for Kids
3. Reflect
Module reflections are self-directed opportunities to synthesize what you've explored and to consider your own practice. These are fast journal entries to invite new thinking and to inspire action steps.
"Assess Student Learning: Manage and monitor student learning and plan what’s next for learning. Check Student Learning: Use a variety of strategies to monitor, assess, and provide feedback to students about their learning. Make Instructional Adjustments: Use formative assessment results to guide their reflection on effectiveness of instruction and to determine next steps for student learning." -OSPI
Consider your most recent week of teaching and learning. What are all of the ways you gathered evidence for student learning? Make a quick bulleted list of both your formative and summative tasks. Then,
Celebrate what is working!
Consider what's missing. Are there students you need more information on? Are there gaps in learning you need to address? Is there a standard or skill you need to revisit? Are you gathering the depth of information you need to understand student progress?
Generate a wish. In the coming week, what is one WISH you have around assessment in your class? (i.e. "I wish I had a better grasp of where students are at with ________________")
Keep those wishes in mind. The “Practice” section that follows offers a few action steps to try out. Does one align to your wish?
4. Practice
Exploring this module with colleagues? Consider collaborating on one of the practice activities below and share feedback to one another on your experiences.
The following exercises are short action steps that offer you optional resources and activities to support your work in designing and delivering assessments. Consider trying one (or more!) out this week to enhance your practice. To reveal the instruction, click on the “TRY THIS” title(s) that interest you.
+ TRY THIS: Plan Summative Assessments in Your Team
In this article, Grant Wiggins defines assessment. #3 in the list of questions emphasizes the importance of backwards design. As you consider planning your distance learning weeks, you want to start with your learning goals and assessments in mind first. How will students show what they know? If you are in a professional learning community or teaching team, connect on Zoom to discuss an upcoming week and your shared summative assessment.
What is it you want students to demonstrate (know and do)?
What are some options for assessing their learning?
How will students submit their assessment to you?
How can you work together to create that assessment or to divide up the assessments ahead of you in the upcoming weeks?
+ TRY THIS: Plan Demonstrations of Learning with Choice in Mind
Choice boards are one way to encourage student agency for learning. Students can make choices on how they want to engage, and they can also make choices in how they demonstrate their learning. A well designed rubric aligned to the skills and standards students need to show can be paired with a variety of demonstrations of learning.
Read, "Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning?" and design an upcoming assessment with choice in mind. How might a choice board, tic-tac-toe chart, or other menu of options align to the same rubric so that students are demonstrating learning in alignment to skills while also leveraging their strengths and interests?
+ TRY THIS: Plan with the Right Tools
Your Core 4 and other tools can help you design effective assessments. Think about creative options for students to show what they know:
How can Screencastify be levered for students to talk through a final piece of writing, experiment, creation, or?
How can students create a slideshow that shows their steps from beginning to end along with final reflections?
How might you adapt quizzes to Google Forms?
How could you create an EdPuzzle as a summative assessment? (or an interview assessment to adapt the strategy in this video?)
What other tools could you leverage for assessment?
Plan out your next assessment.
+ TRY THIS: Plan for Project Learning
Project Based Learning is possible at home! This article offers frameworks and supports for setting up PBL in distance learning. Additionally, PBLWorks provides examples and context around the PBL philosophy. At its heart, PBL is a method in which students "gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or change." Student homes and neighborhoods are locations where PBL can thrive.
This article provides small starting points for PBL: Students can interview family members, consider case-studies, and collect data at home. Think about what is ahead in your teaching and learning. Identify a PBL opportunity, and ideally with colleagues, consider designing a small PBL opportunity for students to engage in their learning in new ways. Then, design how they will show what they know. Video reflection? Images of process in Google Slides? Flowchart of where they started and where they are now? Consider how PBL aligns to innovative demonstrations of learning.
5. Dive Deeper
If you have time and interest, explore these optional resources for more feedback rich inspiration. Also, check Slack for what your cohort is posting to extend one another’s learning.
A More Complete Picture of Student Learning
Why Formative Assessments Matter
Adapting Test Design to Make it Work in a Distance Setting
How Formative Assessment Transforms the Classroom, from Culture to Lesson Plans
Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics
Project Based Learning: Start Here
6. Share
Click to Access Slack
How can you extend your own learning and the learning of others with a post in Slack? Before moving on from this module, turn to the Module 7 channel in Slack. Consider sharing in that space:
What is an assessment strategy that’s working for you?
How are you encouraging student voice and choice in assessments?
What is an idea already posted that you can adapt and borrow?
What is a question, challenge, or dilemma on which you want support? (This about your wish from your reflection!)
What is a resource that will extend our module learning?
Keep returning to Slack for support, resources, and extensions of learning. Make the most of that participant curated space and reflect on how a similar approach might support your students.
7. Review
Self checks for understanding help your students take agency for their progress and next steps. They provide affirmation that they are on the right track or insights to the questions they need to ask.
Take a moment to consider your own affirmations and questions:
Do you have an assessment you're excited to try out in this upcoming week?
Do you have a plan for addressing your wish?
Do you have both formative and summative assessment woven into your learning plan ahead?
Did you share in Slack or absorb new ideas from the Module 8 Slack channel?
Thank you for all you’re sharing, trying, and doing for your students.
NEXT: Feel free to move ahead to Module 8 with the goal of previewing Modules 5-8 before your corresponding cohort Zoom meetings.